Legend (Arizona Vengeance 3)

Everything is rebelling against that notion, but I go still and take a deep breath. “Okay.”

Both cops let me go, and when they see that I don’t intend to bolt again, one of them walks off toward a patrol car. The other one, a young guy that can’t be more than midtwenties, tells me. “The owner of the house, Pepper Nantais, called 9-1-1 stating she’d been shot.”

“Is she alive?” I manage to croak.

“Yes,” the cop says and adds on. “Her vitals were stable when the ambulance transported her to the hospital. Now, do you know anyone that would want to hurt your girlfriend?”

And that’s when it hits me.

“Jesus fuck,” I growl and the cop braces to block me from running into Pepper’s house. But I pivot and sprint toward my own. I’d gotten so sidetracked by Pepper being hurt in her own home that I totally forgot about Charlie.

The cop is hot on my heels, yelling for me to stop. That fucker is going to have to shoot me though.

I bound up my stairs and twist the doorknob, feeling sick to my stomach that it’s not locked.

“Lucy,” I yell at the top of my lungs as I enter the house. I hear nothing but quiet. Utter silence.

“Lucy,” I yell again.

The police officer comes running in behind me, his hand on his gun but not to shoot me. I think he’s comprehended that this is my house and I’m concerned that whoever shot Pepper could be here.

The cop pulls his gun, points it down toward the floor and orders me with a pointed finger right back out the door, “Sir…I’m not fucking around right now. Stand on this porch and don’t move. What am I looking for in here?”

Something penetrates that I need to let him do his job. I step backward onto the porch. “My two-month-old daughter and her nanny, Lucy. I think it was my daughter’s mother that did this.”

The cop touches a button on the microphone headset attached to his shoulder and requests backup but he doesn’t wait, disappearing inside. Another cop bounds up the steps, gun drawn, and enters my house.

I turn away, walk to the edge of the porch and bend over thinking I might vomit. Nothing comes up and I stare helplessly inside.

It seems like hours but eventually one of the police officers comes out the door. His voice is curt when he says, “Sir…your daughter isn’t here but there’s an adult woman inside, unconscious. Appears to have been hit on the head with something. Will you step inside with me? I want you to identify her if you can.”

My stomach bottoms out as I follow him inside. Just on the other side of the couch with another cop kneeling beside her I see Lucy. She’s got a gash on the side of her head dripping blood. “Oh God,” I mutter.

“Is that your nanny?” he asks.

“Yes, Lucy Rivens.”

The cop presses two fingers again to the microphone. “309 Phoenix…we have an unconscious female requesting EMS 10-17 to my 10-20. Also a potential 207 in progress.”

Someone chatters back at him through static a bunch of numbers I don’t understand.

“Now what’s going on?” he asks me.

I feel like I’m hyperventilating as I manage to tell him in short, choppy sentences. “I have a two-month-old daughter. That’s her nanny, Lucy. I have full custody and her mom is not allowed to see her. She’s been harassing us. Been stalking my girlfriend. My daughter’s gone so I know it was her. Lida Martin. I’m confident she shot Pepper, did that to Lucy, and then took Charlie.”

“Tell me everything you can about her—detailed description and if you know what type of vehicle she drives.”

I tell him what he asks, which is pitifully little. I have no clue if she has a car. No clue where she’s staying. No clue what she’s going to do with my daughter. The police officer takes my information and they issue an APB on Lida.

“Can you check on Pepper?” I ask the cop.

“Sure,” he says with a small smile. I think he’s actually feeling bad for me now and he pulls his cell phone out. I turn around in a slow circle, and watch the commotion.

Now that a child is missing, things move rapidly. The ambulance arrives and transports Lucy. A crime scene unit shows up and starts dusting for prints. Plainclothes detectives come and start to question me. They shut up just long enough for the cop who had checked on Pepper for me to let me know that she was in surgery.

My emotions are pulled in a hundred different directions. I’m sick with worry about Charlie and I’m despondent that Pepper could die and I’m so angry at Lida that I want some vigilante justice and I want to be the one to deliver it.